The big A is coming back to haunt us.
Posted by Anna Bull on May 8th, 2007
My heart almost skipped a beat when I read in today’s Times that 24% of doctors would refuse to sign an abortion referral form. Over the past few months or so, the all-divisive issue of abortion has raised its head again in this country. There have been items in the news recently about doctors being loathe to train as abortionists as it is seen as a fairly low status type of surgery to do, and the possibility of nurses being trained to carry out early surgical abortions has been posited. A resounding defeat of a private member’s bill by Conservative Nadine Dorries last October to restrict the time limit on abortions hasn’t stopped the Tories having another try, by hijacking the forthcoming bill for changes in fertilisation and embryology laws to add an abortion clause.
But to return to today’s item - granted, doctors may have ethical or religious qualms about abortion, but we didn’t hear about them stopping prescribing Seroxat when it emerged there was a statistical link with suicide, for example. The larger question is whether GPs should have the right to refuse patients the right to treatment because of their own personal beliefs. I believe that since we have reached a consensus as a society on the least-worst option, then doctors should follow that consensus, otherwise known as the law.
This is a major issue in the US, where for example pharmacists are allowed discretion in whether or not they prescribe the morning after pill, leading to situations such as that described by the brilliant Biting Beaver, of driving all over Ohio to try and find a pharmacist who would prescribe the morning after pill within the alloted 72 hours.
Every time I read an item like today’s, the knowledge sinks in a little deeper that I am never going to be able to be complacent about my rights over my body, but I’m going to have to keep fighting for it. This issue isn’t going to go away.
Filed under: abortion on May 8th, 2007
Anna, I entirely agree. That’s all I have to say.
What is “the right to treatment”?
We do have universal healthcare free at the point of use, but we don’t have any right to demand particular operations or procedures. So it isn’t that GPs have the right to refuse, merely that patients have no right at all to insist. There is no law, reflecting consensus or otherwise, that can or should force doctors to perform abortions- surely a figure of 24% refusing to sign referral forms just means 24% have those ethical or religious qualms you speak of?
A referral doesn’t entitle a patient to an operation or procedure. It entitles the patient to an expert assessment of their case. To refuse to refer in any circumstances, a GP must be convinced that continuing a pregnancy cannot put the mental or physical health of the mother or her family at risk in any circumstances. This is a pretty radical judgement. It’s vaguely plausible that 24% of GPs really think this, but more plausible that a lot of GPs don’t think it but in fact oppose abortion on moral grounds. In which case they’re committing misconduct. GPs can’t take the law into their own hands.